The Supermicro X11SPA-T Review: An Impressive Cascade Lake Workstation Motherboard
by Gavin Bonshor on January 24, 2020 9:00 AM ESTSupermicro X11SPA-T Conclusion
The Supermicro X11SPA-T is an impressive E-ATX form factor motherboard for Intel's Xeon W workstation-based CPUs. It is designed for professional use including workstations and servers. Although not a server board, there is a typical array of server functionality provided.
Visually the Supermicro X11SPA-T has a unified aesthetic through a black PCB and is easy on the eye, and most use cases for this model should be within a high-end chassis with proper cooling or even a server blade which supports E-ATX models. The X11SPA-T offers users plenty of different configurations with its seven full-length PCIe 3.0 slots, with four x16, and three x8 slots. One benefit of so many full-length slots is graphics card support with one option available is to use it as a powerful virtual machine with multiple graphics cards.
Another benefit of the number of full-length PCIe 3.0 slots is to use the bandwidth of the slots for dedicated RAID controllers and create a large bank of storage drives in either RAID 0, 1, 5, or 10 arrays. Add in support for up to 3 TB of ECC DDR4-2933 memory and depending on processor support, or Intel's DCPMM modules with the higher-end Xeon SKU's including the Gold and Platinum series, and the possibilities are endless. With twelve memory slots and support for both LRDIMM and RDIMM DDR4 memory in hex-channel mode, the Supermicro X11SPA-T provides a solid foundation for taking advantage of what C621 has to offer.
With an ASPEED 2500 BMC controller and assisted by a Realtek RTL8211E PHY on the rear panel, remote access to our test machine worked flawlessly. This includes with Supermicro's SD5 software, and through the IP accessed control panel which included Java support for real-time monitoring. Other features include an Aquantia AQC107 10 G Ethernet controller, with a second port which is powered by an Intel I210-AT Gigabit controller. The rear panel also includes two USB 3.1 G2 ports, with a single Type-A, and a single Type-C. A Realtek ALC888 takes care of the audio and even includes an S/PDIF optical output.
The Supermicro X11SPA-T has a current price tag of $620 at Amazon, which is a very fair representation given the quality of the controller set and the features on offer. It's a drop in the ocean in comparison to the consumer models such as the ROG Dominus Extreme which has an MSRP of $1800, and as expected, has a much more consumer-focused target market with many bells and whistles which aren't required for workstation use. For its price point, it puts it in line with dual-socket LGA3647 options, including the WS C621E Sage for $616.
Supermicro is one of the market leaders in workstation offerings and it's easy to see why through the X11SPA-T single-socket LGA3647 motherboard. It's on the pricey side with its current retail price of $620, and it could be improved upon, especially in the software and firmware, but for features it is quite solid. The biggest compliments to the X11SPA-T is that it works in every department it's designed for, it performs well, and it has the added advantage of looking good.
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Tomatotech - Saturday, January 25, 2020 - link
I don’t have prices to hand but there has been discussion that the Mac Pro is competitively priced compared to buying the same parts yourself.As said above, if you want Apple, get the Mac Pro. If your time is valuable, get it pre-built with a support contract that probably costs an extra $5k+ (which is very worth it for commercial buyers).
I’d say only build this kind of system yourself if your time isn’t worth much - but then you wouldn’t be able to afford it - or if you have free support eg graduate students to farm it out to.
FunBunny2 - Saturday, January 25, 2020 - link
"I don’t have prices to hand but there has been discussion that the Mac Pro is competitively priced compared to buying the same parts yourself."That's always true; BigCorps buy in bulk and therefore at lower unit cost. There's a reason Amazon is killing local stores, and that's it. Trouble is, either consumers ignore the transport cost, or Amazon eats it. So far, it's mostly the latter. (e-tail will, in due time, devolve into supplying only low volume niche products that aren't profitable to stock locally.) Also, it turns out, in recent years most (i.e. more than 50%) of Amazon's turnover is from other vendors. Don't know how much Amazon's cut is, but the notion of 'central purchasing' beating on price might not be a given.
Death666Angel - Monday, January 27, 2020 - link
For some mid range configurations, the price is maybe okay. But you really should not upgrade the SSD or RAM at all via Apple, as far as I know, since the prices are steep. And the entry level is 5k for an 8 core, I believe?I stand by it, if you need MacOS, get Apple, otherwise why get a product that locks you into using Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs, both of which are not the be all end all these days in performance. Apple support also seems questionable with the Pro products, compared to other companies. Plus, if you don't need MacOS, chances are you need Windows or Linux and those don't run great (at all) on the Mac Pro.
And my "build it yourself" was not meant as a stict "get all the cheapest parts from 5 different vendors, then assemble it and test out all the edge cases". This isn't LTT. But not going with Apple allows you the freedom to check out all the classic workstation vendors and boutiques, look for the combination of CPU, GPU, RAM and storage that fits your needs with an OS and applications you actually use and then decide which brand you trust most and see who has competitive pricing.
peevee - Monday, January 27, 2020 - link
Is it the same company which has integrated Chinese spy chips on its boards?HoLiFuc - Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - link
That story was a whole lot of BS, is was already debunked already ages ago by Supermicro and other company's who where supposed to be affected.otherwise - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
That was proven to be false. You might be thinking of Huawei which is still under sanctions for these claims.ender8282 - Monday, January 27, 2020 - link
Why no thread ripper comparisons?duploxxx - Thursday, January 30, 2020 - link
Because that would scratch half of the Intel benches from the graphHollyDOL - Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - link
Is it just me or is the board much more visually clean (layout wise, no rubbish etc.) than mainstream boards?Xajel - Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - link
I wish we see more mainstream workstation boards, things for Z390, X570 & TRX40 also...